Another Marmol meltdown hands Braves 6-5 victory

After he gives up 2 homers in 9th, Sveum says it's time to talk about embattled closer's future

April 07, 2013|By Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune reporter

The Braves' Justin Upton is mobbed by teammates after his walk-off home run against the Cubs on Saturday night in Atlanta. (Scott Cunningham/Getty photo)

ATLANTA — It took three implosions and two home runs from the Upton brothers for Cubs manager Dale Sveum to admit it was time.

Carlos Marmol's role as the Cubs' closer appears over for now.

Marmol gave up a game-tying home run to B.J. Upton leading off the ninth inning and another to brother Justin one out later, giving the Braves a stunning 6-5 victory over the Cubs before a crowd 38,498 at Turner Field.

What does he do with Marmol now?

"Well, I think we're definitely going to talk about it now," Sveum said with a slight chuckle.

But no one was in a laughing mood in the Cubs' clubhouse, not after the embattled closer saw his ERA rise to 27.00 after three shaky outings in the first five games of the season.

Sveum pointed out that Kyuji Fujikawa "struggled too" in his one inning, giving up three runs in the eighth to let the Braves climb back from a 5-1 deficit.

What are Sveum's options?

"We have (Shawn) Camp and (James) Russell who seem to be efficient when they pitch," Sveum said, "They've never really had to do the three-out thing in the last three outs. But there's a mix of pitches and pitchability, so those are options."

But Sveum wouldn't commit to making a change, repeating that "those are all things we're going to talk about. So we'll see what happens."

Marmol seemed shell-shocked afterward. He was removed from the opening day victory over the Pirates before a save could be blown for Jeff Samardzija. Three days later, he gave up two runs in the ninth before getting out of a jam to save a triumph for Travis Wood.

After Saturday's meltdown, Marmol knew what fate awaits.

"I tried to do my best today," he said. "But things went bad."

Marmol said Sveum had not mentioned anything about his role, so he didn't feel like he could answer questions about it.

Carlos Villanueva allowed one run on six hits over 62/3 innings in his Cubs' debut, a promising note in the first go-around of the rotation. After Villanueva's gem, the Cubs have now had three dominant starts (along with Samardzija and Wood), one decent one (Edwin Jackson) and only one clunker (Scott Feldman).

The Cubs also knocked out a season-high 13 hits and got home runs from Anthony Rizzo and Luis Valbuena. But they left the bases loaded with no outs in the eighth when they could have broken the game open, and also stranded two in the ninth.

"The fact is we had a chance to put the game away," Sveum said. "And we didn't do it."